Review Blog

Dec 09 2015

The Bad Guys Episode 1 by Aaron Blabey

Scholastic, 144pp. ISBN 9781760150426
(Ages: 8+) Highly recommended. Humour. Adventure. Animals. You
cannot help but notice that the baddies in this book have dark
glasses, formal titles and drive a limousine rather like many
bad guys in film noir of the past. But with animals as the
protagonists. Mr Wolf gathers his friends together, not to do some
stealing, but to try and mend their tarnished reputations.
He sees them all as being able to do good deeds and so become
heroes.
They arrive at Mr Wolf's door, complaining about the impossibility
of the task because people will only see their past reputations, Mr
Shark and Mr Piranha are always on the lookout for meat, while Mr
Snake is hungry for a mouse to eat.
Optimistic Mr Wolf allays their fears and they go out in the
limousine to find a cat to rescue. Of course the result is hilarious
and Mr Wolf, pleased with their good deed, searches for something
else to rescue. This time it is the dog's home, where Mr Wolf
intends to use his friends' abilities to release all the animals.
This is very funny as Blabey uses the inherent characteristics of
his animals to add layers of humour to the task at hand. Their
dialogue is uproarious, the situation they are in belying their
natural instincts uproarious and the illustrations marvelous. Seeing
Mr Shark donning women's clothes to go unnoticed, or the group
sitting down to afternoon tea with cups and saucers, adds hilarity
to the short easy to read chapters.
And this is the first of a series!
Fran Knight